House Panel Approves $2.8B in Net Neutrality Internet Grants

The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce sets rules, including open access and network neutrality mandates, for almost $3 billion in grants to provide high-speed Internet networks to unserved and underserved areas.

President Obama's call for widespread broadband deployment won its first
congressional victory Jan. 22 when the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
approved rules for $2.8 billion in government funding for high-speed Internet
networks in unserved and underserved areas.

Recipients of the funding will be obligated to build or expand existing
networks under open access and network neutrality rules, which mandate that operators
open their networks to all devices like cell phones and laptops regardless of
the manufacturer or provider, and prohibit discrimination in the type of
traffic the network handles.
The stimulus bill contains $350 million to fund an Internet mapping program
that was enacted in 2008.

The $2.8 billion approved late Jan. 21 by the House
Appropriations Committee and the rules for the grants approved the Energy and
Commerce Committee Jan. 22 are part of a planned $6 billion in Internet
investments. The House's overall $825 billion economic stimulus plan is expected
to hit the House floor for a vote the week of Jan. 26.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said the grants are
aimed at "service providers, infrastructure companies, or a state or unit
of local government." Major carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast
have long opposed network neutrality rules and have only recently and
begrudgingly accepted the notion of open networks.

The wireless carriers' principal trade group, CTIA, urged lawmakers in a letter
Jan. 21 to drop the open access provisions of the legislation, calling them "vague,
undefined and unnecessary." The trade group suggested that the open access
requirements would slow carriers' embrace of the grants.

Sohn called the votes "forward-looking actions by these committees [and] ...
the first steps to enacting President Obama's technology platform that will
lead to putting Americans back to work, stimulating the economy and improving America's competitiveness."

The Computer & Communications Industry Association was equally effusive in
its praise of the legislation.

"There are still too many communities that need not just physical access
to high-speed broadband, but affordable access. This stimulus legislation can
soon create jobs, and generate more online economic activity and opportunities
for more Americans," Ed Black, CCIA's president and CEO,
said in a statement. "The opportunity to participate in the digital
economy via high-speed connections to the open, public Internet is fundamental
to shared prosperity and democracy."